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What Diet is Best After Cancer Treatment?

Program: Reduce Cancer Risks through Healthy Living & Nutrition
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Andrew Schorr:

Okay. Well, that helps. Now, we've been getting some questions from people. Here's one that came from Jennifer in Houston and she says, "After cancer treatment what kind of diet should I follow to prevent a recurrence?" So is it fruits and vegetables and less animal fats? What would you recommend, Sally?

Ms. Scroggs:

Yes.

Andrew Schorr:

Yes.

Ms. Scroggs:

Yes, a plant based diet. And certainly you could go to the American Cancer Society's website at cancer.org. They have a new about 30 page article on the role of nutrition and physical activity during and after cancer treatment. And actually their diet recommendations are using the guidelines for prevention. So reducing the risk of a second cancer diagnosis for one reason. And the guidelines will also help in reducing the risk of heart disease. They mesh very well with that as well as diabetes, etc.

Andrew Schorr:

Sally, I got to ask you this, though and this question came in so I just want to jump in with this. Jamie from Crosby Texas - I'm not sure where Crosby is, but I need to learn my Texas geography better. Jamie writes, "Well, what about organic foods? Should I be spending the extra money on them?"

Ms. Scroggs:

Okay. I also wanted to address the lower fats.

Andrew Schorr:

Oh, sure.

Ms. Scroggs:

And there is less emphasis on lowering the fats. There's more emphasis on having the healthier types of fats and, again, less of the saturated fats that may be marbled and to some animal fats that also we see and refined carbohydrates, like desserts, for example. So the healthier fats would be what we've heard about with the Mediterranean style diet with olive oil. Also omega 3 fatty acids may play a role with a better immune systems, not specifically enough evidence right now to say cancer risk reduction, but there is a component with the immune system and cancer.

So, again, it's a plant based diet. Not vegetarian, but where two thirds of your plate has vegetables and whole grains or fruits, for example. And to get more information on that there's another good website from the American Institute for Cancer Research and that's www.aicr.org. They have what's called the new American plate, and it gives the science based evidence as well as how to meet those goals and some recipes.

Andrew Schorr:

Sally, two quick questions before we take a break. Someone wrote in wanted to know about flax oil and flax seeds. Good?

Ms. Scroggs:

They are good. You have to be careful. I can tell a personal story. It was actually a lot of my patients that were at high risk for breast cancer that were using the flax seed in a particular cereal that had the whole seed in it. And I had assumed that it had been ground up, but it hadn't been. So I want to warn people that when they start anything like this, to experiment, to start out slow to see how their body handles it. Because flax seed is a very potent laxative. So you want to introduce it slowly. You want to introduce fluids.

It looks promising in breast cancer, for example. And what we've talked about is being the majority of the breast cancers can have an estrogen component. It doesn't look that promising with prostate cancer, because of a particular fat in it.

Andrew Schorr:

Okay. We're going to take a break. We have so much to talk to you and Dr. Cook and Mary about. And you still owe me that answer about organic foods, okay?

Ms. Scroggs:

Okay.

Andrew Schorr:

So save that away. We're going to talk more about cancer prevention as we continue our premier edition of patient and lots more to come. I'm Andrew Schorr. Stay tuned for more Patient Power brought to you by M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

Andrew Schorr:

Welcome back live to Patient Power and we welcome your calls. You can give us a call at 1 877 711 5611. Or as some other people have just send us an email at patientpower@mdanderson.org. Also to take a look at our whole program schedule, basically every other Tuesday night, just go to mdanderson.org and then slash patient power.

You know, I want to make a comment because I'm a big fan of M. D. Anderson, as you can gather, I think they saved my life. I chose to go to a place that just does cancer care and research, and now we're hearing about their devotion to cancer prevention, too, which is so important. It can make such a big difference. And so you can imagine the specialists they have who eat, drink and sleep your illness, and now increasingly what we're learning about in cancer care is personalized care. Thanks goodness they're developing more and more medicines, but which one is right for you. And what dosage or should it be combined with another or is there a clinical trial where they have promising research.

That's the kind of treatment and care and knowledge that they have at M. D. Anderson. They don't have it on every corner, believe me. And they may not have it at that pretty good clinic down the block. So you want to at least consider a second opinion or consultation at M. D. Anderson. That's what I did. It made a big difference, I think a life saving difference for me. That's why I'm here for you and I'm going to be here every two weeks or so we can do this together. So help me and please spread the word.

One other thing I want to mention, Sally Scroggs was so good with saying go this website or that website. There's lots of information on the mdanderson.org website, and if you can, related to cancer prevention go see Sally. Or go see Dr. Elise Cook. They're part of a whole team there that's devoted to cancer prevention. So you can go see them. The Cancer Prevention Center at M. D. Anderson.

Sally, you owe me a couple of answers. So one is people are asking about should they pay more to buy organic. Will that further lower their risk of cancer?

Ms. Scroggs:

Well, that's a good question, and you do have to realize that usually organic does cost more. And we do know that from a number, dozens of studies that increased fruit and vegetable consumption is a healthier choice for cancer prevention, heart disease, etc. So I wouldn't want that to be a barrier if you don't have organic available at your store for the broccoli that you want that evening. I would go ahead and make sure that I'm getting the broccoli.

Andrew Schorr:

Eat your broccoli.

Ms. Scroggs:

Or getting the three to five servings of vegetables and the two to four fruits.

I mentioned the American Institute for Cancer Research and you can go to their website. But they say from their research several years ago that less than 1 percent of all cancers are associated with chemicals in the air, water, and soil. Now, they're redoing their research, so you may want to go to their website. This fall they're going to be presenting their research again, so it will be interesting to see if that changes.

You can also go there to get some tips on how to pick vegetables, for example, no holes in it, wash them well. Remove the outer leaves. So I think it's your personal choice. Just because it says organic doesn't mean that it may not have some residue that has floated over in the air or has come into contact with those plants through water, etc.

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